Reality as we know it is bound by a set of constants?numbers and values that dictate the strengths of forces like gravity, the speed of light, and the masses of elementary particles. In The Constants of Nature , Cambridge Professor and bestselling author John D.Barrow takes us on an exploration of these governing principles. Drawing on physicists... more...

A must-read for true-crime buffs and fans of maritime history, The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of H.M.S. Bounty: Its Cause and Consequences is widely recognized as the most detailed historical account of the mutiny on the Bounty that has spawned dozens of novels, movies, and other pop-culture retellings. more...

John D. Barrow looks at the relationship between the way our understanding of the universe reflects the ways in which evolution has shaped our brains, and our expression of that understanding in science, maths and art. more...

For a thousand years, infinity has proven to be a difficult and illuminating challenge for mathematicians and theologians. It certainly is the strangest idea that humans have ever thought. Where did it come from and what is it telling us about our Universe? Can there actually be infinities? Is matter infinitely divisible into ever-smaller pieces?... more...

Will we ever discover a scientific theory that tells us everything that has happened, and everything that will happen, on every level in the Universe? What might such a theory look like, and what would it mean? John D. Barrow guides us through the latest theories, predictions and controversies surrounding the ultimate explanation. more...

What conceptual blind spot kept the ancient Greeks (unlike the Indians and Maya) from developing a concept of zero? Why did St. Augustine equate nothingness with the Devil? What tortuous means did 17th-century scientists employ in their attempts to create a vacuum? And why do contemporary quantum physicists believe that the void is actually seething... more...

In Impossibility , John D. Barrow--one of our most elegant and accomplished science writers--argues convincingly that there are limits to human discovery, that there are things that are ultimately unknowable, undoable, or unreachable. Barrow first examines the limits of the human mind: our brain evolved to meet the demands of our immediate environment,... more...

This is a book about universes. It tells a story that revolves around a single extraordinary fact: that Albert Einstein's famous theory of relativity describes a series of entire universes. Not many solutions to Einstein's tantalising universe equations have ever been found, but those that have are all remarkable. Some describe universes that expand... more...

'If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.' John von Neumann Mathematics can tell you things about the world that can't be learned in any other way. This hugely informative and wonderfully entertaining Brain Shot answers a few essential questions about existence. It unravels... more...

'If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.' John von Neumann Mathematics can tell you things about the world that can't be learned in any other way. This hugely informative and wonderfully entertaining Brain Shot answers a few essential questions about existence. It unravels... more...